XXII
Myles awoke with a start to a knock on the door. He'd shamelessly gone back to bed after his conversation with Natalie, relishing the softness of the mattress and the down-filled pillows, a luxury even foreign to officers in the corps. Running a hand through his hair, he propped himself up on his elbows.
"What?" he shouted, wondering if it might be housekeeping. A glance to the clock confirmed it was almost noon.
"It's your favourite ginger, dickhead." Came the sarcastic voice through the door.
Rolling his eyes and huffing a silent sigh, Myles got out of bed, pulling at his clothes, which were twisted and bunched from being slept in. He opened the door wide and attempted to deliver a convincing, friendly smile.
"You look like you just shit your pants in public," Amy declared dully. She was shabbily dressed, in her PT sweater, sweatpants and flipflops. Her ruddy curls hung freely about her shoulders and her face had a grey pallor to it that suggested she was feeling the negative effects of the night before. Such a state was rare for her, at least ever since she'd changed her status to married and her surname to Smythe.
Sometimes, Myles found himself forgetting that Amy actually was married. She rarely spoke of her husband Wayne, and spoke to him even less. They had been married for a total of a week before Amy received her three-year posting to the UNSC Hercules.
"You look like you're about to vomit in public," Myles retorted. He knew her too well – this was most certainly hungover Amy.
"I might just," she said, swallowing cautiously and fighting back a rather sour expression. "Have you seen Nat? I went by her room and found the maid in there cleaning it. From what I could see, it looked like she's checked out."
"Yeah, she's gone," Myles confirmed. "She came by early this morning to let me know. We had a little chat and smoothed some things out from last night."
"That tells me almost nothing." She pushed past him into the room, collapsing heavily into the nearest armchair. It was clear that it she wanted more information than that. Myles, too tired to protest, sighed heavily and turned to meet her expectant eyes.
"She's with John," Myles tone sounded surprisingly nonchalant, as if he were speaking about a different man instead of the one that almost killed him the night before. "Where exactly, I'm not sure."
"Are you… alright?" Amy said cautiously, raising a brow.
"Yes, I'm fucking alright! All Nat told me was that she's leaving with him. She's on leave, and the Spartan isn't under my command, so what business really is it of mine where they go? As long as she's back when I told her to be, I don't give a fuck. Can't blame them for wanting some time to themselves, honestly."
"Those are words I never thought I'd hear come from your mouth."
He shrugged helplessly.
"She's fuckin' in love with him. Surely you've noticed."
"So within a matter of hours, you've gone from acting like a cunt to them both to happily giving your blessing. Christ, Myles. Either you're with her, or against her. After years of friendship, you'd think you'd be able to put your fuckups behind you and at least try to support her."
"I'm trying, for fuck sakes. Now, listen," Myles held up a finger. "I only acted like a…"
"Cunt," Amy injected. "It's my special word, and you earned it."
Myles sighed heavily with annoyance.
"I only acted like that because I suppose, deep down, there'll always be a part of me that doesn't want to see Natalie get hurt. I know the Spartan's gonna break her heart. She might never see him again after this. If he dies, we'll never know. I have never heard of a Spartan being killed, nor of a soldier who saw one be killed. If they die, we never hear of it. No one knows their name, the record is wiped clean or locked up somewhere, classified from all. They just disappear. I don't want to see Natalie go through that, waiting forever for a meeting that will never happen."
"You already broke her heart at least once; don't act like you're some fucking saint. But, yeah, I understand what you mean. At least if one of us dies, she'll be able to find out." Amy paused thoughtfully. "This really isn't like her, you know. Or, at least not like the Natalie we've known since we joined the Corps. It changed her, like it changed us all – but there was a certain part of her that we loved that died. The cheery, fool-hearted girl who lived as if nothing could touch her, as if all things were beautiful. That girl became angry, cold-hearted and lived recklessly, in case she ought to die tomorrow. With John, that old Natalie seems to come back."
"And that's precisely what worries me," he said, perching on the bottom of the bed. "I need her in the right headspace, or she'll wind up in a fucking body bag."
"Give her credit where credit's due. She survived just fine while being in love with you, after all."
Myles let out a grunt at this.
"I should've treated her better," he sounded disgusted with himself.
"So start now," Amy said simply. "It seems like you are off to a good start. Wherever Natalie is, I'm sure she's happy." With a deep breath, she heaved herself to her feet, heading towards the door. "I'm going to have a shower. Hopefully I feel better for tonight. Fuck knows if I can handle another night on the town with our platoon." She opened the door, pausing to glance back at her friend. "Be happy that Natalie's happy, Myles. I am."
Deep down, he knew he was too.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving," John declared with a sigh, looking over to Natalie, who was on the edge of the bed, slowly getting dressed. Her hair was a tousled mess.
"Is it bad that I forgot about eating?" Natalie asked, shimmying her sports bra down over her breasts and smoothing the seams. Without thinking, John reached over and gently freed a few strands of her hair that got caught in the elastic straps.
"Thank you," she smiled sweetly at him, meeting his eyes in the dresser mirror at the end of the bed. She watched as John came up behind her, tucking his chin into the crook of her collarbone and pulling her tight against him.
"Is this what… it's like, for everyone?" John asked lowly, his breath tickling her neck. "Losing all track of time, completely taken with each other's bodies?"
"Well, there's having sex and there's making love. They're two very different things," she said. "Luckily for you, you've already experienced both. The first few times we slept together… it was only lust; just sex. Right up until it wasn't, at least. Sad thing for me was I didn't truly realize it until after you'd gone."
"I'm glad we could make up for lost time," he said. He pressed his lips to her temple in a gentle kiss, then was on his feet in a toss of the sheets. Going over to his duffle bag, he unzipped and plucked out two plastic packages, turning to her.
"I brought food," he said, holding up one package – it had "RECON MRE" stenciled onto it. "Frag out!" With a grin, he tossed it her way.
Natalie snapped to, eyes widening as she scrambled to catch it. Too slow on the draw, it slipped through her fingers and collided with her face, bouncing off and falling on her lap.
"Nice catch," he jeered, biting back a laugh.
"Nice aim," she quipped back with a smirk, rubbing at her cheek. Glancing at the MRE, confusion was visible on her furrowed brows and pursed lips. "You're kind to bring these, but you realize the main lodge has a restaurant, right? With real food? I can call and order us room service."
"We can do that for dinner tonight," John said. "The recon packs are much more practical for a mountain hike."
Realizing his meaning, her face brightened.
"I was beginning to wonder if we were just going to stay in bed all day.".
"We have all night to be in bed." He grabbed his sweatpants off the floor and pulled them on. "Come on now; get yourself dressed before I change my mind."
"Aye-aye, Master Chief!" Natalie teased.
"Goddamned Marines," he muttered with a sigh, heading into the bathroom.
"Ooh-rah!" She shouted after him, laughing. Her heart fell so full.
It didn't take Natalie long to realize that this hiking experience would be vastly different from the ones she'd known since childhood. Her first indication was the mere, uninterested glance John spared the visitor map, which detailed the various trail routes and level of difficulty. She had a sneaking suspicion that hiking with a Spartan would put a whole new meaning to the term "off the beaten track".
For the beginning of their hike, all seemed normal as they kept to the trails, which were rocky and heavily wooded with pines. Dead pine needles crunched underfoot, and the sharp sweet smell of tree sap and fresh, mountain air filled their nostrils. Natalie found herself taking deep, long breaths, relishing each one. If she closed her eyes, she could picture her family cottage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and this made her heart ache once more for home.
John led a healthy pace, navigating the trails if he had been there before. The incline increased steadily as the trail zigzagged its way up the mountainside, providing a good challenge. Although Natalie had to take the largest steps possible to keep up with John's long strides, she relished the burning in her calves and the sharp tang of sweat on her lips from exertion. She'd brought her daypack, but it didn't hinder her, for it only contained water and their MREs – a significantly lighter load than what she was used to carrying on an average mission.
After what had to have been a couple of miles, John stopped – presumably for a water break. Natalie dropped her day pack, pulling out her canteen and taking a drink and pouring a little on the back of her neck, sighing in delight.
She looked to John, who was staring upward at the steep mountainside above. The trees were beginning to thin, and those that did live at this altitude were oddly curved at the base, deep roots clutching to the earth. Despite their obvious hardiness, they appeared ready to slide down the mountainside at any moment.
"Thirsty?" she held the canteen out to him.
Wordlessly John took the canteen from her and drank a few gulps, his eyes still glued upward.
"Penny for your thoughts," Natalie said.
John met her eyes, giving her a small grin as he screwed the cap back on the canteen. She accepted it back from him, her expression uncertain as she put it back in her day bag. He tilted his head toward the direction he'd been staring.
"Let's go."
"Up there!?" her eyes widened.
"Quicker to the top. Better views, likely, too."
"You do realize who you're with, right? I'm many things, but graceful is not one. One wrong step and…"
"Do you realize who you're with?" John shot the question back to her, holding out his hand. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Trust me." He smiled, wiggling his fingers expectantly.
She heaved a sigh, smiling, and slapped her hand into his.
"Fuck it," she said. "You win."
"I usually do."
Holding his hand firmly, they stepped off the trail and headed up the hillside. A significant increase in incline, it was not long before she was wheezing, every step feeling like each leg weighed a ton. To their left, she could see glimpses of New Alexandria through the trees, looking tinier than ever.
"Fuck," Natalie panted. "I gotta… quit… smoking. You're not… even winded!"
"I did a lot of my training here on Reach. This isn't the first mountain I've climbed," John told her, propelling himself forward with large steps, occasionally bracing one hand against a tree trunk for aided support. "It levels out some up ahead, I can see it. Not far."
Natalie craned her neck, looking up past him. Indeed, she could see the crest of the hill they were slogging up. She squinted – beyond it was a sheer cliff face, rising high out of view.
After what seemed like the longest few yards she'd ever hiked, they mounted the crest of the hill onto flatter ground. With a sigh of relief, Natalie dropped her day bag and flopped to the ground amongst the pine needles, lying on her back and splaying her arms out to her sides, limp as a ragdoll.
John sat down next to her, his face full of healthy colour and gleaming with sweat.
"You made it," he said. "You didn't even trip. I told you."
She let out a hearty laugh.
"One helluva slog though," she replied.
"Get some water into you," John pulled out the canteen from her daypack and placed it in her hand. She quickly unscrewed the cap and poured an equal amount down her throat and on her head respectively. "Then we'll carry on."
She coughed on a mouthful of water, eyes widening.
"We're not done?! Between our time in bed and our time on this mountain, I'll be crippled come tomorrow."
"The hard part is over for you," John said, turning and glancing up the cliff face behind them. "The hike is about to become a climb. You'll just need to hold on tight."
Natalie sat up at once, turning to look at the rocks that towered above them, disbelief written all over face. She felt the tiniest bit of fear grip her, her stomach flip-flopping with unease.
"You're crazy," she told him.
John let out a scoff, amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Aye, you're not the first person to tell me so. Luckily for you, I take it as a compliment."
"You would." She smirked. "I finally understand what makes you tick, John – while us Marines have alcohol and nicotine, your drug of choice is adrenaline. Dr. Halsey told me this morning that 'Spartans don't know the meaning of safe'."
"Playing safe won't win us the war," John said, his tone darkening for a moment. Much to his surprise, since he had found Natalie the night before, the thoughts of the war had not been on his mind nearly as much as usual. In fact, he had barely given it any thought. Here on Reach with Natalie, it was easier than he realized to forget the war was even happening. A dangerous notion, that; it went against his years of training.
The Human-Covenant War had already been waging for over a decade, and until he met Natalie – the war and his relationships with his fellow Spartans and Dr. Halsey was all he'd ever known. He'd changed in the past few months - that much was certain, however, he found himself confused as to whether the change could be viewed as a positive or a negative. He was feeling more human than he'd ever imagined he would feel. Contrary to the popular belief, Spartans were masters of their emotions - not void of them. They still felt happy over victories, sad over losses, anger at the Covenant – and as John recently discovered, felt love towards someone they cared about.
He glanced to Natalie, breaking from his thoughts. She was gazing through the trees at the horizon, her expression dreamlike. He took a mental photo of her just then – saving it forever in his mind. The silence around them was so peaceful, naught could be heard save for the occasional twitter of birds in the trees overhead and the soft rustle and occasional creak of the pines as their branches swayed in the breeze.
"Well," Natalie spoke after a time. She met his eyes, giving him a brave smile. "Let's do… this." She gave a wave towards the cliff, anxiously looking upwards.
She gathered up her daypack and they both stood, heading towards the base of the cliff. John squatted a little, gesturing towards his back.
"Hop on," he instructed.
With a leap and some help from John, she jumped up onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and curling her legs around his middle. She let out a laugh at the absurdity of it all. He didn't seem at all bothered by the added weight of her.
"Good?" He glanced back at her.
Resting her chin on his shoulder, Natalie glanced up at the cliff, subconsciously tightening her grip around him.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Hang on tight." John took a couple steps back from the cliff to get some run-off distance. Natalie held her breath and almost clamped her eyes shut in an anticipation – but curiosity won. How the fuck is he going to do this? She wondered. She knew better than to question him – he obviously knew a climbable cliff when he saw one.
John took three great strides forward and jumped. Securing a solid handhold and foothold, they hung there for a moment, perched on a tiny jutting of rock like a couple of mountain goats. Spotting the next secure handhold, John began the journey upward as if it were a climbing wall at a gym, rather than a jagged cliff face almost a hundred feet high. His ease and agility had Natalie stunned into speechlessness as she clung to him, eyes glued upward. She daren't look down – not now.
The climb lasted only seconds – but to Natalie, seemed much longer. She found herself trembling against him, adrenaline surging through her veins – but in spite of it all, she was grinning like a maniac, wild with the thrill.
At last, they reached the top, John pushing himself up over the edge with ease, swinging his legs up and over – and once more solid ground was beneath them. Natalie let him go and jumped down onto the ground with a thud, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Fuck!" she exclaimed, laughing. "I'll never forget that!"
That's when she noticed they weren't alone. A tourist, perhaps a fellow guest at the lodge, had followed the safer route up here by keeping to the trail. He clearly had not been expecting to see someone appear over the edge of the cliff, especially without any climbing gear. The young man was wearing expensive hiking gear and boots and had stopped dead in his tracks, staring at them as if they were an endangered species.
John gave him a nod of his head.
"Hello."
"Er… hello," The young man stammered over his words. He had long, curly blond hair and thick rimmed glasses – definitely not a member of the UNSC. "Are you two alright?"
"Oh, we're great. Just great." Natalie nodded awkwardly, gesturing to John with her head. "He's umm… an… avid climber."
"I'd say!" He looked bewildered, if not a little intimidated, by John. "You must be from the base." That assumption was made likely by John's appearance, not Natalie's. While she was fit for a woman, her short stature and youthful face didn't exactly fit the bill for "Marine".
"Yes," Natalie nodded. "We both are."
At this, the man instantly warmed, breaking into a smile.
"Thank you both for your service. I'd be doing the same, but my heart didn't get me past the medicals. It guts me, y'know. I feel so useless here. I pray you both stay safe and win us this war."
"Thank you," Natalie glanced to John. "So do I."
"Beautiful up here, isn't it?" the man went on. "I suppose you didn't get much time to admire the view – I won't keep you, I was just heading down myself. The lookoff point is just a little further up that way. Enjoy the rest of your hike."
With that, he carried on, soon disappearing around a turn in the trail.
"Well, we just gave him an interesting story to tell," Natalie grinned at John. "I doubt anyone'll believe him, though. Hell – I don't know if Amy will believe me when I tell her what we just did." They started off, walking towards the direction of the lookoff. Natalie's legs still trembled a little beneath her, the adrenaline fading but not completely gone. "John?"
"Hm?"
"You don't suppose we can we take the trail back?"
"Yes." He let out a chuckle at this question, reaching over and draping one arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him as they walked. "Not to say that I couldn't get us both down that cliff, because I could, rather easily in fact - but I figured you would appreciate the easier route."
"Much."
The last of the trail involved one final push uphill, before the look off slowly appeared over the crest. At the summit of the mountain, the edge of the lookoff was a sheer drop a thousand feet down. A couple of cautionary signs were posted, warning visitors of loose rocks and to stay away from the edge. The city was visible below, some of the lights starting to come on, winking at them in the fading light. The sun hung low on the horizon, the sky slowly fading from a light blue to a deep orange, streaked with wispy clouds in shades of pink and red. The mountains dotted the horizon as far as the eye could see, their dark blue shades fading to deep purple.
Natalie let out a gasp of delight.
"Wow," she breathed.
They both took a seat on a rather large boulder to admire the view.
"We made it," John declared, glancing down at her. "Worth the effort?"
"A thousand times over." She shook her head in disbelief, her voice overflowing with excitement. "John, this is… wonderful. We did it – we hiked a mountain. Perhaps not on Earth, not in Germany, but we did it none the less. When we talked of it months ago, I never thought it would come true. Our dream came true, John."
"I'm not used to dreams coming true," he said, thoughtfully. "It's a nice change." He looked to her again, this time seeing a tear roll down her cheek, her jaw clenched and lips pursed tightly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Natalie smiled genuinely, her eyes glittering with tears. "People don't always cry because they're sad. They can cry when they're happy, too. That's all I am." She sniffled, wiping at her tears. "Just happy. So happy."
What she didn't want to tell him, was along with the happiness, she found herself overcome with a bittersweet realization that this may be first and last mountain that they would climb together.
She lay her head against the solidness of his shoulder, heaving a final sigh. Gently, he intertwined his fingers with hers, giving her hand a squeeze.
"I love you." The whispered words felt foreign coming out of John's mouth, but his emotions were undeniable.
Natalie's heart warmed as she felt him press his lips to her forehead in a gentle kiss. The last tear rolled down her cheek, and she didn't bother to wipe it away.
"I love you, too."